


At the Campfire

by The_flabbergasting_blobb_of_fluffyness



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Afterlife, Bittersweet, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Here I go again with the tragedy, Not really suicidal thoughts but I guess it's close enough, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, implied canonical character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21824218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_flabbergasting_blobb_of_fluffyness/pseuds/The_flabbergasting_blobb_of_fluffyness
Summary: The campfire had always been a place to feel at home; a place of peace and rest and warmth. And maybe a place to meet again after everything is lost.
Relationships: Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum, Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	At the Campfire

**Author's Note:**

> It's sad, it's cheesy, it's horrible... I also didn't plan to write this, but it just played out in my head and I had to get it out of my brain.

Noct sat at the fire, staring into the dancing flames. The camp was dark and quiet, as was the forest behind the glowing glyphs protecting it. It was their last camp before they would reach Insomnia for the final battle. At least, it had been - in another life. In _his_ life.

It was peaceful. He missed the constant rambling of the others, their presence filling the darkness with life. He played with the thought of bringing them here – it was all too easy to mingle thoughts and reality, whatever _reality_ was here. He had tried a whole number of dreams. The one with Luna had lingered for a while; sitting on the throne with her calming presence at his side to guide him hadn’t been so bad. But he hadn’t been happy. He wasn’t even sure it had actually been Luna next to him, or just a version of her he had conjured with his mind. It wasn’t the same as talking to a real person.

In the end, he had settled here – next to the campfire and the empty tent and the abandoned cooking gear, the gentle noises of the night forest surrounding him like water. Sometime he should stop resisting the dawn. He could go fishing and ride around in the Regalia and visit all the places that now lay in ruin back in the real world. Sometime.

Suddenly, there was a new sound in the darkness. Footsteps. Unsure and stumbling. Noct raised his head, peering into the velvety black behind the borders of the haven. There shouldn’t be any surprises here. He knew that once he forgot that this was all in his mind, once he started to accept it as a new reality, the world would start to move around him again on its own. But here, right now, he sat in his little protective bubble of darkness, and it was all a dream that hadn’t quite begun yet. The only movement in here should be his own and the steady dance of the fire in front of him.

The footsteps came closer. A figure started to crystallise from the shadows, the lanky figure of a man. The fire painted his blonde hair coppery as he stepped inside the circle of light.

Noct stared up into his face and wondered if he had dreamt him here without noticing. He hadn’t meant to – he didn’t want to sit around a campfire with fake versions of his friends. But Prompto looked different from Luna or everyone else he had seen in his other dreams so far. They had been calm, content, unsurprised at what had happened around them. Prompto looked around nervously, jumping at the sounds of the forest. Noct was also pretty sure that he had never seen him before. Not this version of him at least. Sure, he looked like his twenty-year old self, just like Noct did, but the expression in his eyes was different. It was a subtle change, but enough. Which meant…

_No. Please, no. He’s not supposed to be here! Not yet._

The blonde’s eyes finally settled on him and widened in astonishment.

‘Noct?’, he asked, carefully, the name barely more than a whisper.

‘Prompto…’ His voice felt as if he hadn’t used it in years. It was shaking. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘It’s… It’s really you, isn’t it?’

Noct rose from his chair as Prompto reached out for him, grabbing his shoulder as if he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t turn into fog. He wanted to hug him, and he wanted to shake him for being so reckless and foolish – time was flowing differently here, but it couldn’t have been more than weeks, months at most. 

‘Damn, it’s really good to see you, buddy’, the blonde choked out. He was blinking rapidly, holding back tears, his fingers digging into his friend’s shoulder. Noct gently pushed him down on one of the chairs, trying to hide his frown.

‘You too. But… what happened?’

Prompto looked around, at the empty tent, the cooking gear that was all set up but never used, the crackling fire in front of them.

‘I don’t know what I expected, but this is… kinda nice’, he mused. Then he caught Noct’s gaze and let himself fall back in the chair with a sigh, hiding his face in the darkness.

‘I guess I was just… I didn’t…’ He took a deep, shaky breath. ‘Life really sucked without you, you know? And everyone was just moving on and I… I couldn’t…’

There was an icy lump settling in Noct’s stomach as he looked at the shadow where his friend’s face was supposed to be.

‘Prompto… tell me you didn’t…’

‘…blow my own brains out?’ The blonde laughed - a small, sad little laugh. ‘Nah. Not that I didn’t feel like it. But… well. Nobody likes a quitter.’ He shrugged. ‘I didn’t _mean_ for it to happen… I think. Maybe I did. I guess I just… stopped fighting it.’

‘What happened?’

Prompto still wasn’t looking at him, drawing his knees up to his chest and hugging his legs with long, slender arms.

‘Went to clear out some abandoned settlement with Ignis and Gladio – it was really hard on all of us, but we try to stay busy, try not to grow too far apart. _Tried_ , I suppose. Anyway, we got jumped by some beasts, those bug-things… the others are fine though, as far as I know’, he added hastily as he glanced up and noticed his friend’s frown.

Noct hummed in thought. ‘How long has it been?’, he finally got himself to ask. He knew that he probably shouldn’t, but it seemed important to him.

Prompto was fidgeting with his wristbands, shying away from his gaze. ‘About two months’, he mumbled.

_So short. Far too short._

Noct sighed. There was no use in mourning lost opportunities. He wouldn’t get them back, and now, neither would Prompto. So instead of brooding, he let out a small chuckle.

‘The bug-things, huh? Of all the ways for you to go…’

Prompto looked up in surprise, but then he joined his friend’s laughter. ‘Yeah… I hate bugs.’

‘I know. Icky!’

Noct sank back in his chair with a smile, and Prompto followed his example. For a while, they just watched the flames dancing and twitching, biting away at the dry wood. Until the blonde let out something like a squeak and pressed the heel of his hand against his temple.

‘Those idiots’, he whispered under his breath.

‘What’s up?’, Noct asked, concern in his voice. Prompto just shook his head like a wet dog and groaned until his friend leaned over to grab him by the shoulder.

‘What’s happening?’

‘Ugh… time really moves differently here, huh?’ He rubbed his temple again. ‘I think… I think they’re trying to bring me back.’

Noct’s eyes grew wide, and he felt a wave of relief rolling over him – along with a slight pang of regret, but he shoved it aside quickly.

‘They have good timing, don’t they? Alright, off you go.’

Prompto looked up at him in mock hurt. ‘Am I really that bad company?’

‘Of course not.’ Noct looked him in the eyes with the brightest smile he could manage. ‘I’m really glad you came by, but if you have the chance to go back…’

Prompto seemed to think about it for a moment, then he let himself sink deeper into the chair.

‘No. I’m not leaving you alone in ghost town.’

Noct stared at him, frowning in confusion.

‘I appreciate the feeling, but I’ll be fine, really. I’ll go fishing when the morning comes…’

He stopped himself when he saw Prompto’s clenched, pleading face. He sighed.

‘Prompto’, he said, gently. ‘Eternity won’t get any shorter because you miss a couple of decades of it, right? You have Iggy and Gladio and Iris and Cindy and your camera and chocobos and sunrises… I don’t want you to miss out on that.’

The blonde sniffed quietly, shaking his head. ‘Me neither’, he whispered. ‘But… it doesn’t feel right enjoying all that when I know you can’t.’

Noct smiled and punched his shoulder – a playful, encouraging gesture, and so familiar. ‘That’s why you have to do it for me, buddy. And when you get back, you can tell me all about it. We’ll go on an epic road trip just like we used to, and it will be so much better when you have some cool stories to tell.’

‘But I’ll miss you.’

Noct squeezed his arm, his smile growing a little sad. ‘I know. But it gets better, I promise.’

‘Everyone keeps telling me that’, the blonde complained, pulling a face.

‘Maybe because it’s true, you bonehead.’

Prompto swallowed hard, then he rubbed the tears out of his eyes and looked up to his friend.

‘When?’, he asked, his voice small. ‘When will it get better?’

‘Every day. One day after the other. Alright?’

A deep breath. ‘Right.’

Noct grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of his chair, gently nudging him in the direction of the glyphs surrounding their camp.

‘C’mon, don’t keep the guys waiting. And don’t you dare show your face here again for the next eighty years or so.’

Prompto chuckled, even though it sounded a bit unsteady. ‘That would make me one hundred and ten. A bit old for a road trip, don’tcha think?’

‘Never’, Noct laughed.

‘And you’ll still love me when I’m old and wrinkly?’, Prompto asked with a flutter of his eyelashes.

‘Of course. Now get your ass out of here!’

Noct watched his friend walk slowly towards the darkness surrounding them. Just as he was about to step outside the circle of light, he called: ‘Hey, Prompto! Tell the guys…

Prompto woke to two pairs of eyes staring down at him, one burning amber and one milky grey. He squinted and pulled in a deep breath. There was the surging energy of a Phoenix Down pulsating under his skin and the taste of burning wood on his tongue.

A big hand cupped his cheek, felt the pulse at his neck.

‘Damn, kid, don’t scare us like that!’, Gladio growled. Prompto tried to smile an apologetic half-smile, but there were sobs burning in his chest and shaking his body. The relief on the other’s faces turned to worry.

‘Are you all right?’, Ignis asked softly.

Prompto raised his hand in a feeble gesture and touched his cheek – his fingers came away wet. Whether he cried because Noct was gone _again_ or because _he_ was still here, he didn’t know. He didn’t care. 

‘I…’ His voice was raspy. He cleared his throat and tried again. ‘I talked with Noct.’

There was no reading the other’s expressions. Prompto didn’t even try – he was so, so tired.

‘You had a dream?’

The blonde shook his head. ‘I don’t think it was a dream.’

‘What did he say?’

Normally, Gladio would call bullshit. He wouldn’t believe in something he couldn’t see or smash with his fists. But this wasn’t normal. Nothing had been since Insomnia.

‘He gave me the stink-eye for being early.’ Prompto laughed, or maybe sobbed, it really didn’t matter right now.

‘He… he wanted me to tell you he says hi.’

 _The guys and Iris and Cindy and my camera and chocobos and sunrises_ , he reminded himself.

_King’s Knight and comic books and car rides and all the stories I can tell Noct when I see him again._

Prompto let his head fall back and watched the night sky, its black velvet fading at the seams to give way to the colours of a new dawn.

‘He says he’ll keep the campfire going until we catch up to him.’

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry. If you need a fix-fic after this feel-train, I wrote one of those too (check out 'After the end, there is always something else')


End file.
